Sergey Karjakin wins Norway Chess 2013

5/18/2013 – After the massive buildup to see Sergey Karjakin challenged for first, many expected Carlsen to catch up with him. Instead Aronian held Carlsen to a draw, Anand blundered and lost to Hao, letting Nakamura snatch third, while Karjakin played a very tough game against Topalov and drew a winning position to take a brilliant sole first. Illustrated report with GM analysis.

The fleet of chessmobiles reserved and painted
especially for the tournament

The auditorium where the games were played

With the build up that had been accumulating over the last rounds, to report
that Sergey Karjakin won the Norway Chess tournament seems almost the surprise,
even though he led the tournament through and through. The reason is not a lack
of confidence in Karjakin’s undeniable talent, which led him to not only
become the youngest grandmaster in history, but probably also the youngest world
championship second. No, the reason is that by the last round, no fewer than
three other players could hope to steal first either straight out, or by taking
it to the blitz playoffs in case of a tie: Magnus Carlsen, Vishy Anand, and
Hikaru Nakamura. At the very least, this all promised great fighting chess for
the last round, and not an epidemic of short draws as is common in large swiss
tournaments.

For those who prefer the more relaxed atmosphere
of the live commentary...

... there was a large spacious area with a great
view from all angles.

The technical crew responsible for the filming
and the broadcasts

The first game to end was Radjabov-Svidler, who played a Gruenfeld Exchange,
and very little took place as both seemed content to play it out and draw. The
next was a curious one: Aronian-Carlsen. The two played a Queens Gambit Declined
in which the pieces came off quite quickly, and ended up in an endgame with
rooks and opposite-colored bishops. A draw was agreed by repetition. For Carlsen
it meant having to wait and see whether Karjakin lost, in which case there would
be a tiebreak, otherwise he would need to be content with second place.

Magnus Carlsen and Levon Aronian comment on their
game

That was the end of the quieter games. With Carlsen drawing, and Karjakin’s
game undefined still, Vishy Anand had to believe he could pull out a surprise
from behind by beating Wang Hao. Sadly for him, the day of surprises was not
over, and an ugly blunder on move 14 due to an oversight sealed his fate on
move 16. He tried to find some creative way to salvage the draw, but the Chinese
player held fast and went on to win.

GM Daniel King analyzes Wang Hao-Anand

This still left a chance for Hikaru Nakamura, though his was the most remote
as he not only needed to win, but needed Karjakin to lose as well. Winning was
the easier part of the equation as he played Jon Hammer, a player rated 150
Elo below him, but accidents can happen. The American made sure there were none,
and he beat the Norwegian in a very high quality game, playing razor sharp from
beginning to end.

Hikaru Nakamura came in third with 5.5/9

This left the last game still going, and the most important, Sergey Karjakin
against Veselin Topalov. The two played a Sicilian Najdorf with Black’s kingside shattered, though not easily penetrated, and White’s advantage
in space, also with little room to articulate anything. It seemed as if Karjakin
was happy with the draw, which he made clear by shuffling his pieces as he waited
for the Bulgarian to show something. Topalov should probably have not insisted
as he began a dubious maneuver bringing his king to the queenside allowing White to start
hoping for something. It was precisely when Sergey really had killer blows that
he chose to repeat the position and accept the draw. One can perfectly well
argue that he only needed a draw, and while true, the win was still there with
little risk to him.

Sergey Karjakin drew Veselin Topalov for the biggest
win of his career

Nevertheless, it concluded what was the greatest tournament result in Sergey
Karjakin’s career, taking sole first ahead of the world number one, the
world number two, and the world champion all at the same time. Fantastic.

For the organizers and home fans, it was a small disappointment to not have
their star holding the trophy, but by all means the tournament was a great success
and was well used to develop chess and visibility for the country.

The venue made sure visitors had the opportunity
to indulge in some chess

On the first rest day, the players visited a school
to help promote the game
among the children.

See also

9/26/2017 – The final classical game. The finals has been relatively sedate with three draws until now. But it could all end today with one decisive game. Ding Liren has the black pieces today. It's going to be an exciting game. Games kick off at 13:00 CEST (7:00 AM EST) with live commentary from Tbilisi by GMs Evgeny Miroshnichenko and WGM Keti Tsatsalashvili and live updates by our reporters Sagar Shah and Amruta Mokal.

See also

7/5/2017 – This is neither prank nor clever wording: Garry Kasparov will be playing in the official St. Louis leg of the Grand Chess Tour from August 14-19, 2017. Please note that this is the Rapid and Blitz competition, just as the ones held in Paris and Levuen these last weeks, and not the classical events. However, this is not an exhibition event, and will determine the official Grand Chess Tour rankings as well as FIDE ratings of the players. Here is the press release.

Video

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